Production Scheduling That Knows What the Line Is Doing

Schedules drift for predictable reasons, and most of them are visible in the line data long before anyone updates the plan.

• Rates planned from nameplate speed rather than the measured rate for each SKU on each line.
• Changeover and CIP durations planned from estimates rather than recorded times.
• Stops and slow running known to the line but not to the scheduler until the shift report.
• Orders started, paused or finished without the schedule being told.

When conditions change, the scheduler decides what to do; the data makes the decision faster and better informed. With live status, measured durations and forecast finish times on one screen, a scheduler can see the effect of moving an order, pulling a CIP forward or splitting a run before committing to it, and the updated plan goes back to the line without being retyped.

• Changeover and CIP windows based on recorded durations for each SKU pair.
• The knock-on effect of a long stop visible across the rest of the day.
• Updated sequences released to the line and selected at the HMI.
• A record of planned against actual for the next planning cycle.

Many mid-size plants schedule in a spreadsheet, and that is often fine once it is fed with real data. Others use an advanced planning and scheduling (APS) tool or the planning module of their ERP. We connect to what the site uses through a documented interface, database or file exchange, and keep the plant-floor side independent so the scheduling tool can change later without rebuilding the line integration.